NORMAL STORY CHAPTER 11-15

Greene meets with Nikola and asks of him a favor. Noting that a signal of
Luna’s M.I.N.D. had been detected, he coaxes Nikola – after some
deliberation – into approving a confidential deployment of the Gray Raven’s
Commandant to an undisclosed location.

Vera, receiving instructions from Nikola, steals a transport aircraft from a

dispatched group of Constructs and forcibly takes the Commandant with her.
Together, they fly out over the Atlantic Ocean and ultimately reach their
destination: A hidden, abandoned mid-ocean Zero-Point research facility,
codenamed “Atlantis.” Upon arrival, they retrieve a transport pod containing
Vera’s Flare frame as well as a recording from both Nikola and Hassan laying
out their objective. Their orders are to collect any and all information they
can find within the facility.

Embarking through the facility, Vera and the Commandant are greeted by
various autonomous mechanisms, all of which being at remarkably low
infection stages; some express weak hostility, while others are entirely
benign. Moreover, the facility is completely devoid of all signs of human
struggle. Walls, floors, and other structures are untouched, hallways are
cleaned to perfection, furnishings lay undisturbed – it was almost as if
humans had never occupied the space to begin with.

Eventually, the duo discovers the personal office, and consequently a series
of video logs, of the former Head of Research at the facility, Lastris. In her
logs, Lastris details the events that transcribe prior to the vacation of the
facility.

Lastris and the other researchers aboard Atlantis originally were participating
in studies revolving around Zero-Point energy. However, when the
catastrophic failure that led to the Punishing Virus occurred, their objective
shifted: They set upon discovering the mechanisms behind the genesis of the
Punishing by means of replication. Lastris and her team of researchers strove
to recreate every aspect that went into the original catastrophe. As the world
outside of Atlantis crumbled, the facility stopped receiving supply shipments;
eventually, the population aboard found themselves strapped for food. Faced
with dire circumstance, they chose to continue their research until the bitter
end. Each member of the facility had their bodily needs, as well as roles in
the research, measured and accounted for; they would then receive a daily
ration of biscuits and other non-perishable food items in storage. Through
these calculations, teams were starved to death in order of importance to
their project. Administrative roles died first, while scientists and engineers
whose abilities were core to the operation had extra rations saved so that
they could survive longer. The entire staff eventually met its end in this way,
giving their lives to their research in the name of saving humanity. Lastris
herself was the final casualty.

It was at this time that Vera and the Commandant noticed that the entirety
of Atlantis had begun to slowly sink into the ocean. Deducing that someone
had initiated the sink as a function from a central control point, they race
down to the central reactor where they believe the control terminal is
located. Much of the facility begins crumbling under the heavy external
pressures of the Atlantic Ocean, and their path is impeded by shattering
walls, flooding, and increasingly violent Corrupted. Upon arrival at the
reactor, they briefly encounter the Ascendant, Lamia, before she disappears.
Vera and the Commandant chase her to the top of the central tower, where
Vera battles her. Upon Lamia's defeat, Atlantis returns to the ocean surface.

Vera and the Commandant are then retrieved by a transport aircraft and
return to Babylonia.

HIDDEN STORY

During one of their replication experiments, an Atlantis researcher named

Lebia was fatally injured in an explosion. However, at the time, she was also
pregnant; the scientists aboard Atlantis, after some deliberation, chose to
perform an emergency operation to remove the child from Lebia’s womb.
The child, whose lower body had been shattered during the explosion,
miraculously survived the operation. Lastris named the child Lamia after her
mother.

Lamia continues to grow throughout the time the researchers live and work
aboard the facility. However, her intellectual growth is stunted, and many of
the scientists dissociate with her due to her inability to contribute to the
project. When the facility begins rationing food, Lamia becomes increasingly
more emotionally volatile, much to Lastris’s discontent. Lamia eventually
decides that, above all else, she wishes to live. In this interest, she consults
with one of the scientists, who offers her the opportunity to become a
Construct; that way, she would gain the ability to retrieve information or
supplies from the outside world, thus making her useful to the team and
thereby solidifying her importance aboard Atlantis. She accepts the offer,
trading her prosthetic legs for a mechanical lower half with the ability to
change between legs and tail, and is sent away from the facility by the
research team.

Throughout her time as an Ascendant, she struggles with her own memory
and intellectual capacity; she cannot remember Atlantis’ location, and only
learns of it through conversation with another Corrupted. By the time she
manages to return, the members of the research team are long deceased. In
her despair, she initiates the sink order, hoping to bury her own pain along
with it.

After her defeat by Vera, Lamia is allowed to escape. She is last seen drifting
aimlessly below the ocean’s waves.

NORMAL ATORY CHAPTER 16-20

The data retrieved from Atlantis and brought back to the Science Council
yield an incredible breakthrough: There is a a compound that is capable of
absorbing the Punishing Virus. Asimov and his team set upon studying this
finding, but indicate that their research will take far too long to be productive
without more samples from high-density viral bodies. The Commandant,
together with assistance from Chrome, is able to deduce the location of
another Polymerized Mother Structure: An abandoned filter tower, named
Tower 40，within the Puglia Forest Park.

Concurrently, it is observed and noted that the virus on Earth has been
evolving at an unprecedented rate, and has now begun creating human-like
organisms with heightened intelligence and limited speech coordination.
Babylonia assembles a task force with the Egret, Qing Ting, and Gray Raven
units, along with a multitude of supporting Constructs (including Yata from
the Scarab unit) under the orders of General Hans. The force then deploys to
the Puglia Forest Park with a twofold mission: First, collect viral samples from
the Polymerized Mother Structure, and second, destroy it.

Upon arrival, the force notes that much of the “vegetation” growing in the
park is, in fact, not plant biomatter, but rather viral bodies. Humanoid
creatures grow from their glowing red “vines” through an umbilical cord on
their backs; these creatures are display immediate aggression towards the
humans and Constructs on the ground.

Through their improvised combat and exploration tactics, the teams manage
to arrive at Tower 40. From there, they ascend the tower, following the viral
“veins” towards their target higher up. Gray Raven is eventually dispatched
individually in order to retrieve the samples and defeat the Mother Structure
while the remaining teams prevent pursuit by the inhabiting Corrupted.

Lucia, Lee, Liv, and the Commandant encounter the Polymerized Mother
Structure and attempt to engage it. However, shortly after their arrival, the
Mother Structure “gives birth” to two immensely advanced Humanoid
Corrupted; these Corrupted are regarded as the perfect mirror image of
humans, and display the capacity for both emotion and abstract thought
shortly after they’ve opened their eyes. Lee and Lucia are quickly knocked
out of the way by them, and the Commandant is struck through their
stomach by a tendril from the Mother Structure. The Commandant manages
to muster their will and fires a shot from their weapon at point-blank range
into the tendril, separating some of its body from it; this injures the Mother
Structure enough for it to relent, and its two “children” rush to its aid,
allowing Gray Raven time to escape with the bit of its body they’ve collected.

Upon the return of Gray Raven, the task force requests an emergency
evacuation transport and also issues a command to have an orbital strike
performed on the entire Puglia Forest Park. Descending from the tower, Hans
realizes that the transmitter inside the tower is jammed and unable to
transmit coordinates appropriately, and goes back in alone to personally
rectify the problem. He succeeds, but dies shortly thereafter due to
complications from Punishing infection.

The rest of the force escapes the park. However, at their rendezvous location
with the transport aircraft, the force are promptly slaughtered by the two
Humanoid Corrupted who’ve pursued them from the tower. The orbital strike
occurs at this time, obliterating the park and everything inside it except for
the two Humanoid Corrupted. At this point, they walk off.

Lee, Lucia, and the Commandant are retrieved and brought back to
Babylonia. The former Constructs are in poor shape, but are not in critical
danger; the Commandant, however, is left hanging on the verge of death.
While the samples were successfully brought back to Babylonia, the
operation is considered a catastrophic failure by the World Government.

HIDDEN STORY

Roland, under the alias Rollmo, tricks three scavengers into making their way
through the Puglia Forest Park and into Tower 40 by informing them that
there are substantial stocks of Babylonia-issued serum stores being kept
there. With “Rollmo” leading the way, they pass through the park and enter
the tower, encountering various Corrupted creatures all the while; the
scavengers’ behavior and reactions are streamed via the tower’s security
cameras to screens for the Polymerized Mother Structure to see and learn
from.

During their ascent through the tower, the three scavengers are eventually
separated from Roland. They continue their journey further up, seeking the
serum vials that Roland used to bait them with, and stumble across the
Polymerized Mother Structure itself. Realizing the scale of what’s happening
in the tower, they venture back down and into the tower’s central control
room. Zac (the engineer of the three) manages to disconnect some of the
tower’s power systems, from which the Mother Structure was feeding; this
angers Hui Yan, who had been overseeing the Mother Structure’s
development. Hui Yan and Roland confront the three scavengers, fatally
wounding Zac and scaring the other two out of the tower.
Before dying, Zac asks Roland to give the serum bottles to his escaped
comrades, to which Roland obliges.